Comments Off on Dr Tom Challenger honoured by White Pages

By admin, June 20, 2013 12:35 pm

Dr Tom Challenger honoured by White Pages

June 17, 2013

A commitment to improving the health of his region has landed Gold Coast general practitioner Dr Tom Challenger the cover of this year’s Gold Coast White Pages®.

Dr Challenger is recognised under the theme, Keeping Our Communities Healthy, as founder of Medcall, a medical service that provides after-hours house calls to more than 300 Gold Coast residents per night.

In 2000, after his grandfather died late at night, Dr Challenger established Medcall, a bulk-billing after-hours medical service that makes house calls. Volunteering his services, Dr Challenger would drive up and down the Gold Coast, supported by just one other doctor, to attend to people in need for hours on end.

Since its inception, Dr Challenger has grown Medcall into a key community service helping to take the strain off local hospitals and ambulances. Now with 33 doctors, Medcall provides medical attention to approximately 300 people each night who live between Beenleigh and Coolangatta.

When not on-call himself, Dr Challenger is working on plans to roll out similar services in other cities.

With Medcall operating 365 days of the year, Dr Challenger is a dedicated GP giving locals lifesaving care when they need it.

“On a personal level I know how crucial after-hours medical service is, so providing such important care to homes all over the Gold Coast is very rewarding. Being selected for the White Pages cover for something I’m so passionate about is quite humbling,” Dr Challenger said.

Comments Off on Relative sweetness

By admin, February 15, 2013 8:53 am

The primary reason that fructose is used commercially in foods and beverages, besides its low cost, is its high relative sweetness. It is the sweetest of all naturally occurring carbohydrates. Fructose is generally regarded as being 1.73 times as sweet as sucrose. However, it is the 5-ring form of fructose that is sweeter; the 6-ring form tastes about the same as usual table sugar. Warming fructose leads to formation of the 6-ring form.

The sweetness of fructose is perceived earlier than that of sucrose or dextrose, and the taste sensation reaches a peak (higher than that of sucrose) and diminishes more quickly than that of sucrose. Fructose can also enhance other flavors in the system.

The principal of addiction
swift peaks and troughs are the principals of any addiction

Eating Fruit in the Community is usually a natural way to self limit the amount of Fructose we consume

Fruits – dried or fresh – are a rich source of soluble fibre; this is material that is not absorbed by the intestines and instead remains within the bowel contents where it binds water; this increases the faecal water content and hence bulk. This promotes intestinal motility and the softer consistency makes the resulting stools easier to pass.

Dried fruits tend to be even more effective at provoking this result because – by virtue of being dried – they are less filling than their fully hydrated fresh counterparts and hence we tend to eat more of them in a portion; this means that the dose of soluble fibre, which is unaffected by the drying process, is higher and hence the aperient effect is more, shall we say, apparent!

Dietary guidelines for the management of fructose avoidance / minimization

Researchers at Monash University in Australia developed dietary guidelines for managing fructose malabsorption.

Unfavorable foods (i.e. more fructose than glucose)

• Fruit — apple, pear, guava, honeydew melon, nashi fruit, pawpaw, papaya, quince, star fruit, watermelon;
• Dried fruit — apple, currant, date, fig, pear, raisin, sultana;
• Fortified wines
• Foods containing added sugars, such as agave nectar, some corn syrups, and fruit juice concentrates.

Favorable foods (i.e. fructose equal to or less than glucose)

The following list of favorable foods was cited in the paper:  The fructose and glucose contents of foods listed on the Australian food standards website would appear to indicate that most of the listed foods have higher fructose levels.

• Stone fruit: apricot, nectarine, peach, plum (caution — these fruits contain sorbitol);
• Berry fruit: blueberry, blackberry, boysenberry, cranberry, raspberry, strawberry, loganberry;
• Citrus fruit: kumquat, grapefruit, lemon, lime, mandarin, orange, tangelo;
• Other fruits: ripe banana, jackfruit, kiwi fruit, passion fruit, pineapple, rhubarb, tamarillo.

Comments Off on Weight Loss and NPY Protein

By admin, February 7, 2013 9:03 am

SCIENTISTS have pinpointed exactly why obese people don’t lose much weight when they diet.

‘s Researchers at Sydney’s Garvan Institute of Medical Research have found that a chemical known as the Neuropeptide (NPY), which stimulates appetite, plays a major role in controlling whether the body burns or conserves energy.

The study, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, shows that when the body takes in less energy or is on a diet, high levels of NPY signal to the body that it’s in starvation mode, and the body subsequently starts storing as much energy as possible.

“Evolution provided us with these mechanisms to help us survive famine,” co-author Professor Herbert Herzog said.

“But now we’re eating more than we should because food is always available, so in many cases additional energy is stored as fat,” he said.

“When you try to lose the extra weight, NPY will trigger and it defeats the purpose of quickly lowering your calorie intake.”

Professor Herzog said with obesity being a major epidemic in the community, researchers have found it challenging to find ways of tricking the body into losing weight because of NPY.

“Now that we have identified the exact brain circuitry, drugs can be developed to target and control these types of neurons,” he said.

Professor Herzog said it was important to note that the study showed that fad diets simply did not work.

“Weight loss needs to be done over a long period of time and that’s what people underestimate,” he said.

Comments Off on Beta-blockers ‘may lower dementia risk’

By admin, January 8, 2013 11:48 pm

Beta-blockers ‘may lower dementia risk’

Beta-blockers slow heart rate to reduce workload and help the heart pump more efficiently

Taking beta-blocker drugs may cut the risk of dementia, a trial in 774 men suggests.

The medication is used to treat high blood pressure, a known risk factor for dementia.

In the study, which will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s annual meeting in March, men on beta-blockers were less likely to have brain changes suggestive of dementia.

Experts say it is too early to recommend beta-blockers for dementia.

The findings are preliminary and larger studies in men and women from different ethnicities are needed to see what benefit beta-blockers might offer.

People with high blood pressure are advised to see their doctor and get their condition under control to prevent associated complications like heart disease, stroke and vascular dementia.

Brain blood flow

Having high blood pressure may damage the small vessels that supply the brain with blood.

Blood carries essential oxygen and nourishment to the brain and without it, brain cells can die.

Vascular dementia is the second most common cause of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease and can occur if blood flow to the brain is reduced.

Other research in a much larger sample of men – 800,000 in all – suggests another type of blood pressure drug known as an angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) may cut dementia risk, including Alzheimer’s disease, by as much as 50%.

The latest work in 774 Japanese-American men found that all types of blood pressure medication were better than no treatment in terms of signs of dementia in the brain – brain shrinkage and tiny areas of brain tissue damage caused by poor blood supply – noted at autopsy after death.

However, men who had received beta-blockers as their only blood pressure medication had fewer abnormalities in their brains than those who had not been treated for their hypertension, or who had received other blood pressure medications, the University of Hawaii team found.

Men on beta-blockers and other medications also had fewer brain abnormalities, but not as big a reduction as that seen in the men on beta-blockers alone.

In the study, 610 of the men had high blood pressure or were being treated for high blood pressure.

Study author Dr Lon White said: “With the number of people with Alzheimer’s disease expected to grow significantly as our population ages, it is increasingly important to identify factors that could delay or prevent the disease.

“These results are exciting, especially since beta-blockers are a common treatment for high blood pressure.”

Dr Simon Ridley, head of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “Hypertension is a known risk factor for Alzheimer’s and other causes of dementia, and keeping high blood pressure in check could be important for preventing these diseases.

“This study suggests a link between the use of beta-blockers and fewer signs of dementia, but as the results of this study have yet to be published in full, it’s not clear what caused this link. It’s important to note that this study only looked at Japanese-American men, and these results may not be applicable to the wider population.

He said a better understanding of the links between high blood pressure and dementia could be crucial for developing new treatments or approaches to prevention.

“With 820,000 people affected by dementia in the UK, and that number increasing, we urgently need to find ways to prevent the diseases that cause it – that requires a massive investment in research,” Dr Ridley added.

Comments Off on Totally blind mice get sight back

By admin, January 8, 2013 11:47 pm

Totally blind mice get sight back

By James Gallagher Health and science reporter, BBC News

Totally blind mice have had their sight restored by injections of light-sensing cells into the eye, UK researchers report.

The team in Oxford said their studies closely resemble the treatments that would be needed in people with degenerative eye disease.

Similar results have already been achieved with night-blind mice.

Experts said the field was advancing rapidly, but there were still questions about the quality of vision restored.

Patients with retinitis pigmentosa gradually lose light-sensing cells from the retina and can become blind.

The research team, at the University of Oxford, used mice with a complete lack of light-sensing photoreceptor cells in their retinas. The mice were unable to tell the difference between light and dark.

Reconstruction

They injected “precursor” cells which will develop into the building blocks of a retina once inside the eye. Two weeks after the injections a retina had formed, according to the findings presented in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.

Prof Robert MacLaren said: “We have recreated the whole structure, basically it’s the first proof that you can take a completely blind mouse, put the cells in and reconstruct the entire light-sensitive layer.”

Previous studies have achieved similar results with mice that had a partially degenerated retina. Prof MacLaren said this was like “restoring a whole computer screen rather than repairing individual pixels”.

The mice were tested to see if they fled being in a bright area, if their pupils constricted in response to light and had their brain scanned to see if visual information was being processed by the mind.

Vision

Prof Pete Coffee, from the Institute of Ophthalmology at University College London, said the findings were important as they looked at the “most clinically relevant and severe case” of blindness.

“This is probably what you would need to do to restore sight in a patient that has lost their vision,” he said.

However, he said this and similar studies needed to show how good the recovered vision was as brain scans and tests of light sensitivity were not enough.

He said: “Can they tell the difference between a nasty animal and something to eat?”

Prof Robin Ali published research in the journal Nature showing that transplanting cells could restore vision in night-blind mice and then showed the same technique worked in a range of mice with degenerated retinas.

He said: “These papers demonstrate that it is possible to transplant photoreceptor cells into a range of mice even with a severe level of degeneration.

“I think it’s great that another group is showing the utility of photoreceptor transplantation.”

Researchers are already trialling human embryonic stem cells, at Moorfields Eye Hospital, in patients with Stargardt’s disease. Early results suggest the technique is safe but reliable results will take several years.

Retinal chips or bionic eyes are also being trialled in patients with retinitis pigmentosa.

Comments Off on Beaching Whales and Solar Radiation

By admin, January 24, 2012 7:11 pm

whales and solar radiation

Surges of solar activity may cause whales to run aground, possibly by disrupting their internal compass, German scientists suggest.

University of Kiel researchers Dr Klaus Vaneslow and Dr Klaus Ricklefs publish their study in the latest issue of the Journal of Sea Research.

The scientists looked at sightings of sperm whales beached in the North Sea between 1712 and 2003.

They then compared this record with astronomers’ observations of sunspots, an indicator of solar radiation.

More whale strandings occurred when the Sun’s activity was high, they found.

The Sun experiences cycles of activity that range from eight to 17 years, with 11 years being the average.

Short cycles are linked with periods of high-energy output, while long cycles are believed to be low energy.

Changes in levels of solar radiation have a big effect on Earth’s magnetic field.

The most notable events are discharges of highly-charged particles or solar flares. These cause shimmering lights, called aurorae, in the magnetic fields in polar regions.

Big solar flares can also disrupt telecommunications and power lines and knock out delicate electronic circuitry on satellites.

Comments Off on Whales Beaching – Solar Radiation

By admin, January 24, 2012 7:07 pm

Seems related

Comments Off on Study suggests high-protein diet cuts weight

By admin, January 23, 2012 2:30 pm

diet high in protein, combined with regular dietician sessions, is more effective at helping young women lose weight, research shows.

A University of Sydney study looked at the effect of diet, exercise and behaviour change in 71 overweight and obese women aged 18 to 25 over a year.

The women were randomly placed on either a higher protein or a higher carbohydrate diet, with both diets providing a similar amount of kilojoules, saturated fat and fibre.

All participants also met with a dietician at least monthly and walked for 30 minutes every day.

After 12 months, all the women recorded significant drops in body weight.

However, the women on the higher protein diet lost nearly twice as much weight and fat as those on the carbohydrate diet.

“The women reported the higher protein diet kept them fuller for longer and had a positive effect on self-esteem,” researcher Dr Helen O’Connor said.
“They also had better iron levels, compared with the women on the higher carbohydrate diet.”

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/lifestyle/a/-/lifestyle/12694614/study-suggests-high-protein-diet-cuts-weight/

Comments Off on Diet and Hormones

By admin, October 29, 2011 10:46 pm

A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine could explain exactly what happened to them. Australian researchers say that the problem is not lack of willpower (although both of my colleagues admit they’ve cheated on their diets recently) but the hormones involved in appetite regulation.

The researchers measured hormone levels in 50 overweight or obese people who dieted for 10 weeks. The hormones were measured before the diet, after the diet was completed and then 62 weeks later.

Levels of appetite-regulating hormones such as leptin, ghrelin, gastric inhibitory polypeptide, and insulin were measured at baseline, at the end of the program and one year after initial weight loss.

They found interesting changes in the levels of two hormones: ghrelin, which turns on the hunger switch, and leptin, which turns off hunger.

For up to a year after weight loss, there were increases in ghrelin and decreases in leptin. The researchers speculate that this probably is an evolutionary adaptation to the threat of starvation.

This provides a good explanation for why the majority of dieters regain their lost weight within five years but I think that knowing this could also help dieters plan their weight maintenance strategy.

When you lose a lot of weight, you really have to change the way you eat permanently.
Return to old habits and the weight will pile on again.

Comments Off on Hello world!

By admin, February 7, 2011 11:46 pm

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!